Chapter Text
Kris shivered as the snow began to fall down harder. They forced their legs to wade onwards through the growing blanket of powder descending on the forest. The weather was worsening into a blizzard, and the trail they were making would be covered up quickly by the snowfall if they didn’t hurry back soon.
I hear a voice.
They nearly jumped out of their skin. It had been quiet for too long. Another person? Really? The weather was barely traversable, and they were miles away from the nearest village—not to mention the sheer difference in elevation. Slowly, they felt their control rescind as their body was turned around and guided in a random direction. In front of them was an enormous lump on the ground. The thick layer of snow made it impossible to make out what was underneath.
(If they had to guess, it looked more like a misshapen log than anything else. Far too big to be a normal person or an average monster. The SOUL always liked to do this type of thing—play tricks on them when they got complacent, make them paranoid and suspicious about normal things. But something about this seemed more serious than a prank, so they entertained this inquiry anyway.)
It’s calling. Touch it.
cmann arent we going ta help her?
The voices in their chest pounded insistently. Kris let themselves be egged onwards. Perhaps they had let go of self control a bit while isolated, but they figured it was harmless to let it explore, as long as it was quick.
Kris kneeled over, pulling the glove off their right hand. They skimmed the snow away to reveal the form—only to glimpse and feel dark purple scales underneath. “Fuck” they hissed, to many voices’ dismay. A monster. Her skin was freezing to the touch. (Her? Probably. That’s what the SOUL seemed to think.) She was closer to a dead body than a living one at this point. They frantically uncovered her face until they found her neck, and pressed two fingers into it to check her pulse.
she’s not breathing!!
No you idiot thats her heartbeat
wat to do wen stuk at dead body tutorial
Her pulse beat almost imperceptibly slowly under their fingers. Kris tried to shake the monster’s shoulder, which shifted the snow around her but barely moved the weight under their hand at all. Push her over. That seemed to work a little better. The body had started rolling over. Now I just have to remember CPR—
A hand shot out of the snow and grabbed their wrist.
Instinctively, they pulled back, but even the loose grip of the huge hand was too firm for them to get away. All at once, the snow slid off of the figure. The monster pushed herself off the ground in one heavy movement, keeping her grip on Kris. She paused for a second, breathing deeply. Then, her head snapped in their direction.
Light flickered back into her eyes as she looked them over. She considered them for a moment. Kris opened their mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the monster tackling them to the ground. She grabbed their other wrist, pinning both above their head and pinning their chest to the ground with her knee. Kris wheezed as their ribcage compressed under her weight, lungs struggling for air. Her grip tightened, as if trying to goad out a greater reaction. The surface of her hands felt like sandpaper chafing against their wrists, and her long nails dug painfully into their palms. When her cracked lips drew back to speak they revealed multiple rows of sharp teeth.
“An’ who are you supposed to be?”
Get off of me!!
im kris that hurts who are you can you close your mouth
No Im Kris
Kris wasn’t sure what to answer, so they didn't. It didn’t seem like the monster was waiting for one, anyways. She immediately seemed to forget about them, instead glancing around to take in her surroundings. It was a miracle she was even alive, let alone processing the situation she was in. Her clothes were shaggy and thin, and frostbite had clearly already started around some of her extremities.
When she remembered they existed again, her demeanor had shifted.
“Hey. You got any food?”
“Invite her back.” Oops. They didn’t mean to speak at all. They supposed they’d gotten rusty at this whole talking thing.
“Invite her… what? You live nearby or somethin?”
She let up slightly, and Kris heaved like they were breathing for the first time. They would’ve liked to say “No, I really don’t want you in my house, thanks,” but they settled for looking away silently instead. She took that as an answer.
“Haha, alright. Okay, this’ll work!” She grinned, showing off her teeth again. Just in case Kris didn’t see them, she leaned in very close to their face. “Here’s how this is gonna happen: You’re gonna take me back there, and you’re gonna let me have a niiiice stay and get me somethin’ to eat so I don't bite your face off.”
They slowly nodded, avoiding eye contact, which was easy enough when most of their vision was blocked by teeth. Her hands carefully eased off, letting go when she finally was certain that they weren’t going to try anything.
Kris crumpled in on themselves as soon as she stood up.
What were they going to do? They didn’t want to bring her back to their house, where she could murder them and it’d take weeks for anybody to come check up on them. But it was better than getting murdered right now in the middle of nowhere. There was no way to call for help at the cabin—the only way to send mail was to go down to the village. It would be easiest to just let her do whatever she wanted and leave, but they didn’t know what that entailed. And living alone tended to reduce one’s inhibitions, and they weren’t sure they would be able to plead self-defence again if anything happened to her. Then again, looking at her clothes…
Would anyone even know?
No. Don’t start thinking like that now. It would be too hard to dig a grave in this cold.
“Jeez. You’re more of a wimp than I thought.” She lightly kicked them in the side. “Get up, human.”
hahaha so true why am i always so weak in the cutscenes
Kris, kill this clown !!
They pulled themselves up, chest still sore from the pressure but not about to wait for the snow to strand both of them. Get back now, think of something later. That was probably the best course of action for now.
The trail they’d left was faint but visible, and they knew the forest well enough to fill in any blanks. The monster trailed behind weakly, so they had to move a little slower than was ideal, but they didn’t dare point it out. After all, it was even more obvious while standing up that she towered over them.
By the time they approached the cabin, it was blizzarding full force. They prayed the fireplace hadn’t gone out. They reached for their keys, only to realize how freezing their hand felt against the metal, and then they noticed their right glove was still missing and damn, that hurts.
Damn that hurts!
Their feet stopped them in front of the door. Like broken clockwork, their entire body froze completely. The connection to the nerves throughout their body shut down one by one until Kris was merely a spectator. The only thing left they could feel was her eyes drilling into their back.
“What are you waiting for? Open the door.” she instructed, but Kris couldn’t do anything at that point. Their hands had started shaking with a nervous tremor that didn’t belong to them while grabbing at the keychain on their belt loop. Somebody thought it was really funny to keep trying the wrong keys in the keyhole, but the violent shaking made getting through each option ridiculously difficult and slow.
“I SAID OPEN THE DAMN DOOR!” she roared.
She was getting impatient. Her shadow hung over them as she moved closer. Their hands continued to shake while methodically cycling through keys. Red key, green key, red key again. Finally, the right key was found and slid into the slot. They looked down at their hands, eyes syncing back into their own body. The door wasn’t even locked.
“Are you pranking me right now? Move it, or I’ll break in.”
Hahhahahahhah ha she’s so mad wait oops i forgot one
open it, kris, open it!!
No, I have to finish using the key,
we’re gonna die gonna die gonna die die die dont let her in go away
They got it together and opened the door. They ripped the stupid, unnecessary key out of the doorknob, and tightened their grip around it so that they didn't end up unwittingly stabbing it into the monster that was easily twice their size. No matter how grating her shouting voice was on their ears.
Are you sure? This is going to be the last chance to kill her while she’s weak.
Oh, fuck off. There was no guarantee they could even break skin—the monster probably wouldn’t even notice if Kris managed to plunge the key into her throat. They considered the folding knife in their pocket, but it would probably be difficult to clean off the monster dust, and it was a gift. If they were gonna suck it up and kill her, they should wait for a chance to grab the rifle out back. Until then, they couldn’t afford any more episodes like that.
Once she entered, she made herself at home quickly. She found the dying embers at the fireplace and stuck as close to them as possible. Kris tucked their keys away and went inside, trying to forget the image of getting rid of her right here and now. Forget the image of scattering her dust out into the snow, pretending they never found her and she died of natural causes, and moving on with their life as normal.
Ah, being alone again. What a nice thought. It was comforting to imagine the world where they’d never encountered her. No mud and snow trekked through the entryway (they would ask her to take her shoes off if she was wearing any), no unwanted questioning they didn’t want to respond to (“Can’t you make it any warmer in here?!”), no cooking for other people (to seem busy, they had started cutting vegetables to make the blandest soup possible), no looming threat of being murdered and ransacked. Curse the angel, they thought while watching the monster make a mess of their fireplace, for noticing when I’d finally relaxed.
LOL, that’s funny. she’s using the wrong end of the fire stoker.
Hope she impales herself on it . . .
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